Consumers are increasingly using automated mechanisms to perform every day transactions. Kiosks exist to avoid enterprise personnel and lines. These automated kiosks allow consumers to perform transactions with an enterprise or agency with little to no human intervention.
The general availability of retail self-checkout systems has naturally led to taking any and all measures practical to increase utilization of these cost effective systems, and maximize the throughput at these systems.
Analysis of the through-put at self-checkout lanes quickly shows that shoppers often need to navigate the same series of user interface options to reach the desired option, for example payment with a debit card, with $20 cash back; or executing the transaction in Spanish versus the default language of English.
Acceptance of the self-checkout systems by shoppers (customers and/or users) is based on many factors. The level of comfort the user feels with the system. A hearing impaired shopper may feel more comfortable with the system volume adjusted higher than the default, or by selecting an alternate voice that was more easily understood. Color blind shoppers may appreciate the ability the change the system color themes to be more easily visible. The ability to select color themes is also of interest to other shoppers, such as younger shoppers who are attracted by the ability to personalize the aesthetic features of the system.
Retailers are also hindered by the inability to easily customize User Interface (UI) themes. As Self-Checkout gains acceptance and larger displays become deployed, the retailer may benefit from customization of the UI.
In addition, customers with disabilities, such as sight or hearing, find it difficult to use traditional kiosk systems. Some, banks at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) include keys that have brail engraved on the buttons; however, this is of little help to a customer using a touch screen where there is no engraving whatsoever and the keys move around on the screen.
In fact, there is very little customization that occurs at enterprise kiosk systems. Typically, the enterprise tries to evaluate how customers are using the kiosk systems and then issue upgrades to the interfaces of the kiosk system to address improved usability. Yet, this process is slow and does not account for individual needs or preferences of each customer. Moreover, the traditional approaches completely fail to address accessibility issues, which may be needed with customers having varying degrees of hearing and sight impairments.